


Firefly Kisses

by myscribblingquill



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Office, F/M, Fluff, Workplace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-06 05:35:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12204921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myscribblingquill/pseuds/myscribblingquill
Summary: When Mary gets invited to a four star restaurant by Sirius Black she convinces herself that it's not a date, and she's right, it's not. It's a business meeting and Sirius has a proposal that will draw Mary into his orbit.





	Firefly Kisses

**Author's Note:**

> For an anon who prompted: _person A thinks this is a date but the person B thinks it’s an informal job interview _. I changed it a little but enjoy!__

In another time, at another place Mary would have claimed there was absolutely nothing wrong with the situation she’s in - the situation being dinner at a four star restaurant with Sirius Black. 

If she knew him a little less, or if she was a little more optimistic, then she would be tempted to call it a date. Yet it’s not, it’s business meeting and Mary has to remind herself that’s all it ever will be.

He’d called her a few nights earlier, making some vague claims about how he got her personal number and eventually extracting from her when she’d be free for a meeting. She should have hung up as soon as she realised who it was, but there was something about his voice. Mary can’t quite name it but the hint of desperation and whatever else he was trying to convey, made her cave pretty quickly.

That’s why she’s sat crossing and uncrossing her legs, wondering when he’s actually going to tell her what he wants.

“And that’s when James - you know James right?”

“He’s dating Lily, so yes, I know James,” Mary sighs. Sirius never talks like this. It’s a constant flow of chatter, some of it funny but most of it a distraction. He doesn’t even seem to be talking to her. He knows that she knows James, they all went to college together and hung out together a few days ago.

“He’s sat with three kittens on his lap, and then one of them -” 

“Sirius,” Mary reaches a hand across the table and grabs his hand. It was thirty seconds away for sending a glass flying across the room. He stills, eyes darting from their hands to her face. She feels a blush on her cheeks.

“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong, or do I need to get James to ban you from caffeine?”

Mary almost snickers as he opens his mouth and shuts it again.

“I need your help,” He says after a few seconds.

“With what?” Mary’s not surprised. She’s been expecting it from the moment she sat down, all the talking and the stress radiating off him. It’s odd for him to be nervous though, Mary’s used to seeing the more suave side of him, not the rambling, cramming three sentences into one side of him.

“My family’s,” He winces on the word, “My business.”

“Okay, what exactly is the problem with your business?” 

She knows the basics. The Black family have been big names for a while, in the papers generally with the words ‘lawsuit’ and ‘criminal dealings’. Mary’s tried not to pay too much attention though. She’s made it her policy to not offer help to her friends unless they ask for it. It sounds a little unfeeling but if she started offering her help them she’d never stop, and she has to draw the line somewhere. Yet as a PR consultant it’s her job to notice when her friends start cropping up in the newspapers.

“We need to change our image,” He leans forward, “When my parents were running the business they had a few,” Sirius considers his words for a moment, “unsavoury clients and they weren’t exactly the nicest people. Even though they’ve been dead for years, I’ve only just become head of the company.”

“And now you’re making some big changes?”

Sirius nods. 

Mary starts thinking through the questions she normally has for potential clients but before she voices any of them something more important occurs to her, “What about your brother?”

“Regulus?” Sirius looks a little shocked. He has mentioned Regulus before, so he really shouldn’t be, but then, he might not have expected her to remember.

“Isn’t half the company his?”

“Not until he turns 25,” 

That means only half the company is Sirius’, and Regulus, or his trustee, can veto whatever Sirius wants to do with the company. It’s a problem for Mary. She needs to know exactly what she’s getting into before she agrees. 

Sirius notices her reluctance, “I’ve cleared all this with him. He’s on board. Reg was … more favoured by our parents but he agrees with me. The company needs to change if it’s going to survive.”

“And his trustee?”

“She won’t be a problem. She’s an aunt, with little interest in what Reg and I do.”

“Alright, what’s your plan so far?”

Somehow Mary ends up making her way through most of a bottle of wine as Sirius outlines his plan for the company. The detail of the plan shows how committed he is. Mary doesn’t understand most of it, she’s never really had a head for business, but she knows what he wants her help with. Change the Black Industries public image from ruthless and cold to something a little bit nicer - which shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

“What do you think?” Sirius asks, pensive and peering at her.

Mary smiles, because it’s a good plan and clearly Sirius believe in it, which means she does too. “I think it’s a good plan.”

“So you’ll help?”

“I’ll need to run it by my partner first but yes, I’ll help.”

That means Lily. She has to get this past her best friend without her growing too suspicious. Yet as Sirius’ face breaks into a smile, Mary pushes the thought of the meeting she’ll have to bluff her way through tomorrow, and drains the rest of her glass.

“And now I should be heading home,” She stands, reaching for her coat but Sirius is there helping her into it. “I’ve drunk far too much wine for a wednesday evening.”

Sirius chuckles and leads her out of the restaurant, “It was you who ordered the wine in the first place.”

“How was I supposed to resist? It was just watching me, staring me down until I ordered it,”

He laughs again, and Mary knows the next few months are going to be a severe test of her willpower and character. She’s going to have to hide her feeling for Sirius, while working with him.

The first test comes the next morning, standing outside her office with a cup of very strong coffee. Lily has already arrived. Mary knows that from the green coat hung up. She summons her courage and pushes the door open.

“Morning,” Lily greats her brightly.

“Morning,” Mary responds and sets her coffee down. She might as well get it over with, “I’ve found us a new client,” Lily shifts her attention from the computer, “Sirius Black wants our help with his company.”

Lily stiffens and Mary knows what thoughts are running through her head, they’re the same ones Mary spent hours mulling over last night. They’re too close to him. They’re too close to Sirius, too close to his company, and for a what should be a business transaction, that’s dangerous. 

Mary doesn’t mention that she’s too close to feeling something that she doesn’t want to name. They’re both to involved with Sirius and his friends, Lily is dating James, and they were all close in college. 

They’re too close to be able to see things rationally, but Mary wants this. She wants to help Sirius, she believes in his vision for Black Industries. 

“Is he going to pay us?” 

It’s a better reaction than Mary had been expecting, but then Lily is always full of surprises. 

“Of course. He should have sent over a contract,” Mary sits down at her computer, bringing up her email and sure enough, there’s an email from his secretary.

“I’m assuming you’ll be the one working with him?” Lily narrows her eyes.

Mary forwards the email to Lily, “We’ll probably both have to work on it, but yes.”

“Mary, are you sure? Even if he’s our friend we have to keep things professional,” Lily’s concern is written all over her face. It’s not just for their company, Mary knows, but for her as well.

“The client is his company, not just him,” Mary insists.

“He’s part of the company, so no office sleepovers,” Lily waggles her eyebrows.

“Just read the contract,” Mary throws a pencil in her direction. “And I wasn’t the one leaving dirty notes on post-its in James Potter’s office.”

“He was never a client -” Lily protests, before her jaw drops at the sight of the fee Sirius is offering to pay them. “Holy shit, that’s a lot of money,”

“Yep, enough for lots of bottles of wine,”

“Do you think we should, you know,” Lily nods at her computer, “He’s our friend and that’s practically a fortune.”

“Oh, but I thought we had to ‘keep things professional’” Mary teases.

“Good, because I think my car is about to die on me and I need the money,” Lily sighs and then changes the subject to another client.

And just like that Mary has an excuse to walk into Sirius’ office whenever she wants. Not that she does, that would be taking advantage, but she does end up spending more and more time there.

It’s a tough job and she wants to do it right, which means spending time with Sirius’ company, not just Sirius. The first couple of days are the hardest. Coming up with a plan that will work, and running it by everyone who’s going to be involved is challenging. They all have different demands and Mary’s never worked on a project this big before. 

She starts simple, with a list of things that need to change. The first things she requests is a bigger PR department. How Black Industries got by with a team of five people, she’ll never understand, but they’re going to need more. 

The list grows, but she crosses items off as she completes them. Social media accounts, press releases, interviews, speeches. 

The length of the list doesn’t stop Mary’s from remembering the second thing she wrote. It still hasn’t been crossed out, and her eyes catch on it more than she’s like to admit.

_Sirius Black looks good in a tie._

She finds that there are more and more observations of Sirius creeping onto the list. Mundane things like, ‘ _he drank five cups of coffee in three hours_ ’, and ‘ _did he just compliment my dress_ ’. 

Mary doesn’t cross off the things relating to Sirius, they’re observations, not tasks, and writing the thoughts down mean they don’t bounce around her head all day.

There are too many notes about Sirius though. It really isn’t her fault. He has an office on the floor above the PR department, but Mary walks in to find him sat on the floor with his laptop. She’s commandeered a corner and made it into her work space, and Sirius has commandeered part of her corner. She can’t kick him out of his own offices.

Mary hasn’t decided if having him there makes it easier or harder to work. It makes it easier to stay at work after everyone else has left, but he’s a distraction, one Mary can’t help staring at.

“Was that your phone or mine?” Sirius asks, jerking Mary out of the press release she’s drafting.

Her phone screen shows multiple messages from Lily and Alice, all of them asking if she’s busy tonight. Working with a client until midnight isn’t really her style, and her friends have caught on, but she can’t help it.

“Mine, it’s just Lily and Alice,”

“I think they’re at the pub with James and Remus,”

Mary nods, and silence descends over them again. The tapping of computer keys fills the office, and when Mary rests her fingers against the keyboard the lack of noise catches Sirius’ attention.

“I’m almost done,” She says, when he shoots her a questioning look.

“I just have to finish this email and then I’ll be ready to go,” Sirius scowls at his screen.

“That’s not what I meant,” Mary shuts down her laptop and shoves it into her bag, all ready for a quick escape. “I meant I’m almost done with the company. Not that I’m fed up of working here but I’m almost ready to hand it back.”

“Oh,” Sirius’ face falls a little.

Mary contains the urge to run. She doesn’t want to stop working with Black Industries, she likes it here. The people are friendly, well most of them, and they’re all so enthusiastic about the new plan she’s implemented. And getting to spend more time than usual with Sirius is a bonus. 

She sees him differently now. Before he was always a college friend, she thought of him as smoking at parties and arriving at lectures with a hangover. Now he’s still that person but he’s more as well. He’s a friend, who knows how to make her laugh and spends more time than necessary at his office.

“I ur,” Mary gulps, this is the wrong time for this conversation. It should be happening at 9am in his office with the his secretary taking notes, not at half past ten when they’re both bleary-eyed from tiredness.

“The team knows what they’re doing now. They’ve all settled into their roles and Martha’s a great leader, she knows what she’s doing,” She shuffles the papers on her desk, not looking at Sirius. “I’ll probably be here another week and then I’ll hand the running over the department over to her.”

For some strange reason it feels like a break up. As she swings her bag onto her shoulder and shuffles into the elevator with Sirius, Mary almost burst into tears. It’s absurd because he’s her friend, they’ll see each other again and she won’t have to act so professional.

“Thank you,” Sirius says as the doors open and cold air rushes in.

“You’re welcome,” Mary all but runs to her car. She doesn’t want to know what Sirius is saying thank you for. She tells herself it’s for his company, for the work he is paying her to do and the hours she’s spent typing at her laptop. It’s not for anything else, she can’t let herself think that.

The next week is odd. Mary spends half her time at Black Industries and half at her actual office. She’s easing out slowly, trying to make as few ripples as possible. 

“Mary, why are you sat on the floor?” Lily’s observation catches her by surprise.

It’s a Friday afternoon and Mary’s been trying to wrangle out a plan for a new client. She’s found that sitting on the floor helps provide a different perspective. But when she discovered that she was sitting on the floor with Sirius next to her. Sitting on the floor alone just isn’t the same. Maybe it wasn’t the floor that provided the new perspective, but Sirius, she muses and then pushes the thought out of her head almost as soon as it enters.

“It’s comfy,” 

“Sure,” Lily doesn’t look convinced, but joins her anyway, “Are you ready to head over to Black Industries?”

It’s their last official meeting with them, the company can still contact them again, if they have any queries or need advice, but after this meeting Black Industries is on it’s own. At least the PR department is. 

The meeting is like every other last meeting that Mary sat through. There are thank you’s and goodbye’s and then they’re walking out the door and Mary’s heart clenches a little. 

They’re barely out of the door when they’re stopped by a shout.

“Mary! Lily,” Sirius’ voice echoes.

They stop, wait for him to catch up, “Are you coming over tonight?” The question is directed at both of them, but Sirius’ is watching Mary. Her heartbeat flutters and her mouth won’t work.

“Course,” Lily replies, when Mary still can’t get a word out. “We’ll see you at eight,”

“Yeah, see you then,” Sirius beams and heads back inside.

They take a few more steps down the sidewalk and Lily nudges Mary in the side, “I hope you’ve picked out an outfit for tonight.”

If she’s honest, Mary hasn’t even thought about it, she was planning on turning up in her work clothes - that’s if she could even bring herself to go. But Lily’s got that look which says that Mary’s going to be wearing a dress and heels, after she’s been pushed into the shower.

“He’s not our client anymore,” Lily waggles her eyebrows and Mary knows that however well she thinks she’s been hiding her feeling for Sirius, she hasn’t done it well enough. 

If it wasn’t for Lily, Mary would have stayed at home. She would have brought some ice cream and gone to sleep early, but Lily drags her out the door. The thought of seeing Sirius again has Mary’s stomach in knots.

It’s not quite a party, it’s more like a gathering. A gathering of friends, who are all exhausted and a little overworked but want to spend time together. As soon as they walk in James finds them, he gives Mary a hug, Lily a kiss and then he points them over to Remus, who is trying and failing, to make cocktails.

After a few minutes, the tiredness abates. Mary stills feels like crashing on the sofa but there’s so much energy in the room and some of it rubs off on her. She almost forgets that Sirius isn’t there, until she turns around to share a smile with him and he’s not there.

“It was your last day at Black Industries right?” James says, with an arm around her shoulder.

“Yep, we had our last meeting this afternoon,”

“That explains it,” James waves to a friend across the room and wanders over, leaving Mary hanging. Explains what?

She doesn’t have time to ponder because there are hands on her shoulders and she’s being spun around.

“So this is how you usually spend your evenings” Sirius smiles down at her.

“Well, not all my clients are as demanding as you,” Mary quips back and then regrets it because his smile is intoxicating.

“I’m not a client anymore,” Mary’s not sure how but his smile gets even bigger.

“For all of four hours,”

“The longest four hours of my life,” Sirius sighs.

Mary chuckles. All the knots in her stomach are gone now, every paranoid feeling she had about how their friendship would change seems completely unnecessary. They’re better friends now than they were two months ago.

“You better get used to it, because the Black Industries PR department is now officially under Martha’s control.”

Sirius laughs, “Maybe I’ll just miss your company.”

The words I’ll miss you too almost fly out of Mary’s mouth but she bites them back. She might have acknowledged her own feelings for Sirius but she has no clue if he has any for her.

Sirius breaks the silence that falls between them with a cough, and Mary is reminded of their first meeting at the restaurant.

“When I asked you out to dinner I wanted it to be a date,”

Mary almost drops her drink, her heart leaps into her chest and the panicked feeling from earlier? It’s back.

“It’s so stupid but I wanted you to help with the PR stuff but I also,” he pauses and Mary can see a blush spreading over his cheeks. “I messed it up and then you were working for me , and I-”

“I’m not working for you anymore,” Mary reminds him.

He smiles, and tugs his tie off. Mary hadn’t even noticed he was wearing his work clothes. She’s been so focus on what he’s saying.

“I know, I’ve never been so glad for a contract to end,”

“Technically, you are still a client. You’re allowed to call me and ask for a consultation,” Mary teases, and he shakes his head with a grin.

“I’ll call Lily,”

Mary laughs as his arms slip around her waist, pulling her close enough that she can smell his cologne, the scent of leather and lemon filling the air. A strand of his hair has slipped in front of his eyes and Mary pushes it back, trailing her fingers over his cheekbones.

“Is it a bad PR move if I date my former PR consultant?”

She feels his laugh as their lips press together, softy and a little shy. His hands sweep down her back and Mary can’t help the shiver that runs down her spine. She pulls back for a breath and a laugh escapes her. Sirius’ hair is sticking up from her attentions, his collar is wide open and his cheeks are flushed.

Mary adds one more note to her mental list for Black Industries, ‘ _Sirius looks just as good without as tie on, as he does with one _’ and then she ignores the voice in her head and kisses him again.__

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Say hi on tumblr: [@willsdarcy](https://willsdarcy.tumblr.com)


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